Project Snowblind: Hands-on

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We get another little peek and some hands-on time with Crystal Dynamic's enhanced shooter.

By Dan Adams

Mr. Douglass C. Perry and myself were quite surprised last night when we wandered into the Dolby's office here in San Francisco and found a surprisingly improved version of Project Snowblind waiting for us. Compared the E3 presentation, Snowblind has progressed very far and is beginning to look pretty impressive. During the event we were able to check out three of the single player missions and take some time with the multiplayer as well.

Some of you may know the history of Snowblind and its beginning connections to the Deus Ex franchise, but forget about all of that, because it's done with and Snowblind is now considered an original property. Crystal Dynamics progressed along in development to a point where there was very little relation, aside from the premise of a technologically enhanced main character, to that other series. What we're confronted with now is a very fast-paced action shooter set in the not-so-distant future when nanotechnology and enhanced super soldiers is a relatively new thing.

Players take the role of Nathan Frost, an augmented human that serves as the wrecking ball in the forces of the Liberty Coalition. Nathan and a small band of soldiers get caught in the middle of a military coup and suddenly find themselves fighting to get out of the middle and embroiled in a struggle to stop some madmen from unleashing a terrible weapon against the world. During the three single player levels demoed for us in the presentation, Nathan used several different weapons and some interesting powers in order to destroy an enemy that exploits the landscape and cover well and comes from all angles.

The art style of the game is more colorful than the usual bland gray and blue design sense that the world seems to be infected with in most future games. Instead, the world looks fuller, more vibrant, and somehow more realistic, even with the stylistic approach. It's obvious that while the world has progressed into uncharted technological areas, people still appreciate light and color in their lives. It's certainly a refreshing change of pace that when mixed with some pretty impressive visuals in general creates a fairly impressive environment, even on the PS2 version. We can't wait to see what the PC version is capable of pulling off if the level of detail in the consoles is any indication.

Level design actually looks like it will be molded around the various powers and items available to players to create some interesting and strategic ideas for dealing with situations. For instance, in one section of the single player, enemies were coming from the left and from down an alley on the right. Before dealing with the enemies on the left that were spreading over a more open courtyard Nathan popped out a riot wall grenade that when deployed serves as a barrier to projectiles and characters. Once the alleyway was blocked off, taking on the enemies in the courtyard was a little easier. The riot wall will only stay up for a certain amount of time or until its damage has been decreased to zero from enemies blasting at it, but it can serve as a serious distraction to help in a battle.

It was also quite obvious that levels would be presented with a more non-linear feel to them. Different options for approaching certain situations will be presented thanks to the various powers available. For instance, in that same situation I described earlier, players could also choose to turn on their cloaking ability in order to sneak down the alley behind the soldiers and take them out from behind.